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Pavarotti

Today it’s exactly three months until Christmas Eve, so it’s really time to think about Christmas again! In my house, as well as in my office at work, I’ve started playing Pavarotti’s wonderful Christmas album entitled “O holy night”.

It’s therefore with delight that I can report that a brand new Christmas album with Pavarotti is on its way to us all this Christmas. The album is simply entitled “Christmas with Pavarotti”. This 2 CD album from Decca will be in stores from 4 November in Europe and 10 November in Japan.

The album contains 36 tracks (some sources indicates 34 tracks). Adding all this information together I can give you this preliminary overview of the tracks:

The beautiful Italian Christmas song “Tu scendi dalle stelle” which gets its first international release on Decca.

It looks like this new Pavarotti Christmas album features a great collection of both traditional and modern Christmas songs. And what a beautiful front cover for this album!

Please note that the information above is preliminary as it’s based on information from various online record stores and not from any official Decca or Universal sources. Some of this information can therefore be wrong. I will update this blog post as soon as new information comes available.

In addition to listening to the “O holy night” album, I have another pre-Christmas activity. I love to watch Pavarotti’s Christmas concert from Montreal, Canada in 1978. Previously issued on VHS on Decca (I got an Italian version to prove it!), it’s now available on DVD on various labels. Maybe it’s time for Decca to issue this concert as well? Maybe next Christmas, Decca?

With all the best for Christmas! It’s going to be great now that there’s a new Pavarotti Christmas album to look forward to! 🙂

This blog post no. 314 was first published 24-09-2016. Last revision 24-09-2016.

Five years have passed since the two terrible sequential terrorist attacks in Norway on 22 July 2011 known as “The 2011 Norway attacks”, in Norway just as “22 July” (“22. juli”). The lone wolf terrorist killed 77 persons an injured over four times as many.

I haven’t really got anything to add to what’s been said before during the last five years. You come to a point were there’s no words left. It’s all been said before, and even better by others. The important thing is to remember those who died, to honour their legacy, and to never let this happen again. To anybody.

All I can offer here is music. I strongly believe in the power of music. Music can express love, loss, longing, anger and despair. Music can comfort, help and heal. Music can give people strength and hope.

The days, weeks and months that followed the 2011 attacks really showed the world the strengths of Norwegian society. It also showed that music really can give comfort and hope to people. The terrible facts remain: 77 lives are gone forever, mostly young people. Just starting out on their life’s journey. That’s still so hard to comprehend, even today.

If music can give some comfort and hope to somebody out there struggling I offer five beautiful arias, the first three sung by Pavarotti and the last two sung by the countertenor David Hansen:

“Caro mio ben” by Giordani

“Che farò senza Euridice” from “Orfeo e Euridice” by Gluck

“O figli miei … Ah, la paterna mano” from “Macbeth# by Verdi

“Ombra mai fu” from “Serse” by Handel

“When I am laid in earth” from “Dido and Aeneas” by Purcell

The photo above is from the Oslo government quarter where the 2011 attacks started. The H block (the tallest building) was housing the Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Justice and the Police (the lowest building is the Y block). The photo is taken in August 2011, under a month after the attacks.

Never forget the 2011 Norway attacks!

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This blog post no. 313 was first published 22-07-2016. Last revision 22-07-2016.

The whole world is celebrating the great William Shakespeare this week. On 23 April 2016 was exactly 400 years since the death of the greatest writer in the English language.

Shakespeare’s works have inspired many other artists in creating new works in almost every art form there is, including classical music, such as operas from composers like Berlioz, Rossini, Verdi and Gounod.

Pavarotti recorded and/or performed two operas inspired by works by Shakespeare.

Verdi’s Macbeth has a libretto based on Shakespeare’s play of the same name. Pavarotti sang the role of Macduff in a complete studio recording from 1970 which is available on Decca.

Verdi’s Otello has a libretto based on Shakespeare’s play Othello. Pavarotti sang the title role only in complete concert performances in 1991 which is also available on Decca.

In addition I would like to mention Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi, an opera which has a libretto based on the story of Romeo and Juliet, the same story of Shakespeare’s play of the same name. Shakespeare based his play on another source, so Bellini’s opera isn’t strictly based on Shakespeare. At least three different complete live recordings from 1966-68 of this opera with Pavarotti singing the role of Tebaldo is available on various labels.

And talking about Romeo and Juliet: Bernstein’s West Side Story was indeed inspired by Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. The Three Tenors sang “Maria”, “Tonight” and “America” from that musical on many of their concerts which are also available on their concert recordings on Decca and Warner.

I close this Pavarotti-Shakespeare investigation with the beautiful aria “O figli miei … Ah, la paterna mano” from Verdi’s Macbeth sung by Pavarotti in a concert performance.

Enjoy this Shakespeare jubilee year! There is so much more classical music inspired by the great Shakespeare for you to explore and enjoy! 🙂

This blog post no. 312 was first published 24-04-2016. Last revision 26-04-2016.

For a time now I’ve presented some great quotes by the great Luciano Pavarotti. And there is more to come, but let’s start with a quote about Pavarotti for a change. Here comes a quote by the conductor Carlos Kleiber which I think describes Pavarotti perfectly.

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Here is simply another great quote by the great Luciano Pavarotti. This time it’s about the joy of making music. I think this quote goes to the core of Pavarotti’s art. Pavarotti truly loved what he was doing!

This blog post no. 309 was first published 24-02-2016. Last revision 24-02-2016.

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Here is simply another great quote by the great Luciano Pavarotti. This time it’s about music and elitism. I think this quote is so true! All kinds of music is really for everybody, and Pavarotti was the one who wanted to share the joy of opera to everybody. Grazie, Luciano! 🙂

This blog post no. 308 was first published 21-02-2016. Last revision 21-02-2016.